Most high school anime keep things lighthearted and easygoing, but the slice-of-life psychological thriller Classroom Of The Elite presents a cutthroat environment where only the best can succeed. Kiyotaka has become notorious as one of the laziest, yet most intelligent anime characters of all time because of his deadpan disposition but masterful manipulations.
As fans eagerly await Season 3, they may be looking for anime to fill the void after Classroom Of The Elite’s second season ended. Classroom Of The Elite won’t be coming back until sometime in 2023. Luckily, plenty of great anime are out there to scratch their itch.
Updated April 17th, 2023 by Casey Coates: This list has been updated to include trailers for the best anime like Classroom of the Elite.
10 No Game No Life
Although No Game No Life’s premise doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, it once boasted some popularity. The NEET sibling duo of Sora and Shiro start a life in a brand new, virtual world where they take over as the game’s top players. However, the anime’s stunning animation and likable characters make it feel unique.
Plus, Classroom Of The Elite fans will definitely enjoy the shut-in siblings who lead the series. Sora is a lot like Kiyotaka. They’re both deadpan strategists who always think a few steps ahead. Shiro is also a bit similar to Horikita.
9 The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya
Classroom Of The Elite fans are all too familiar with Kiyotaka’s signature deadpan commentary throughout the series. It’s not particularly humorous, but fans can’t help but get amused by some of his comments. The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya’s Kyon is very similar to Kiyotaka.
As one of anime’s snarkiest male leads, Kyon is a classic example of a male tsundere. He’s surrounded by quirky people doing whatever they can to annoy him, so it just makes sense that he’d make similar sarcastic commentary. There’s never a dull moment in The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya, primarily because Kyon is such a strong male lead.
8 Death Note
Though they may not look like it initially, Death Note and Classroom Of The Elite are actually pretty similar. Classroom Of The Elite’s drama appears much more chill than other slice-of-life series, while Death Note is more dramatic and overexaggerated to drive the plot.
Death Note gives Classroom Of The Elite fans the character-driven plot they are looking for. Unlike Light, Kiyotaka remained passive for most of the series and let the narrative tell the story for him. Death Note is a classic shonen staple that every anime fan should watch at least once, and it’s still relevant today.
7 Komi Can’t Communicate
Most slice-of-life high school anime series are rather predictable and don’t stand out as anything too unique. Komi Can’t Communicate, however, has brilliant animation, a unique art style, and a character-driven plot to really secure it as a standout series among others in the genre.
Komi Can’t Communicate follows Shoko Komi, a girl with terrible social anxiety who wants to make 100 friends by the end of high school. Tadano, the first person who realized that writing to her was an effective method of communication, offered to help her with it. Komi is significantly more chaotic and comedic than Classroom Of The Elite, but it’s definitely worth watching.
6 Hyouka
Hyouka’s Houtarou comes off like a total slacker who only cares about sleeping, but he’s actually a genius. He just never applies himself because he prefers to conserve his energy. Much like Classroom Of The Elite’s Kiyotaka, Houtarou is apathetic to his surroundings but has impressive deduction skills.
They both purposefully keep average grades to avoid standing out and try blending into the background as much as possible. Unlike Kiyotaka, however, Houtarou doesn’t care about using his deduction skills to read other people like a book and use certain information against them. Houtarou prefers solving mysteries with the rest of the Classics Club.
5 Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War
Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War has significantly more energy than Classroom Of The Elite. However, both series seem to share fans. Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War stars two brilliant high schoolers who serve as the president and vice president of the elite Shuuichin High School’s student council.
Kaguya and Miyuki are madly in love with each other, but instead of confessing, they use a series of bizarre mind games to trick the other into spilling their guts first. As the title suggests, love is war, and whoever confesses first loses. The series would be much shorter if Kaguya and Miyuki would just let go of their pride, but that takes all the fun out of it.
4 Assassination Classroom
Assassination Classroom stars Class 3-E, a group of underperforming students ostracized by the rest of the school unless they can improve their grades by the end of the year. It’s also full of the school’s most eccentric personalities. Right off the bat, it has a similar premise to Classroom Of The Elite.
Unlike Class D, however, Class 3-E is tasked with successfully assassinating their yellow octopus-like teacher, Koro-Sensei, before he destroys the planet. Countless assassination attempts ensue. By the end of the series, fans realize that assassination isn’t something to be taken lightly.
3 My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
Classroom Of The Elite fans will definitely enjoy My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. Most of the characters are actually lighthearted, but like Kiyotaka, Hachiman is an apathetic protagonist with a sarcastic remark for every situation. Hachiman has no friends, takes no initiative to make any, and is a total pessimist.
He believes that youth is just a waste of time and that anyone who romanticizes it is lying to themselves to feel better. He wrote an essay criticizing how people interact, and his teacher punished him by forcing him to join the Volunteer Service Club. Hachiman eventually opened up to others more throughout the series but remains pretty cynical and introverted.
2 Prison School
One of the most polarizing aspects of Classroom Of The Elite is its sheer amount of fan service. Fans who don’t like it generally avoid other anime that include it. However, fans who didn’t mind it will definitely enjoy Prison School. The series takes place at Hachimitsu Academy, which has a prison for unruly students.
The protagonist, Kiyoshi, was caught peeping on the girls and was banished to the school’s prison. There, he endured humiliation and torture and tries to escape with his fellow inmates. Prison School is an uncensored, raunchy, twisted freak show that isn’t for the fainthearted.
1 Kakegurui
Similar to Classroom Of The Elite, Kakegurui takes place at a unique academy where students can gamble their way to the top. Unlike in Classroom Of The Elite, however, the students at Hyakkaou Private Academy don’t earn their stripes through hard work and good grades.
Kakegurui is all about gambling. Instead of just focusing on the fundamentals, students at Hyakkaou Private Academy also learn how to manipulate and destroy others. With unsettling visuals, terrifying circumstances, and lots of fan service blended with horror, Kakegurui is an edgelord’s dream.
